The invention relates generally to a machine vise and more particularly to a machine vise having a work holding area that will clamp parallel sided work product and nonparallel sided work product.
In the machining of a work product on a milling machine or other machine tool, the work product is held in place by a machine tool vise attached to the machine. Generally the work product has parallel sides which can be tightly clamped by parallel jaws of the vise. Some work products also have nonparallel sides which also must be accommodated in the machine vise.
While a slight degree difference of nonparallel sides can be accommodated in many machine vises, problems can occur when the degree difference becomes larger. Separate attachment devices are known to position over one of the vise jaws to handle a clamping of nonparallel sides in vises.
It is also desirable to have vises which will handle two or more work products side-by-side for multiple machining of the work product. Two-station, single action vises of the above type are typified in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,674, issued June 19, 1990, to L. M. Bernstein. This device uses a fixed center block with oppositely facing fixed jaws. Two outer movable jaws are positioned by operation of a vise screw controlling the combined movement of the two outer jaws. A somewhat different design of this same concept is shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,183, issued July 16, 1985 to R. P. Krason et al.
A two-station vise using centrally positioned movable jaws and outer fixed jaws is shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,411 issued Feb. 17, 1987 to M. I. Zumi. A pair of movable members are fitted in a T-shaped groove and a wedge is fitted between inclined surfaces. A tightened bolt positioned in the wedge forces the wedge downwardly to position the central movable jaws outwardly.
A two-station precision vise with independently movable jaws is shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,663, issued Aug. 11, 1987 to P. B. Jorgensen. The vise assembly uses centrally fixed stationary jaws and independently controlled outer movable jaws. A commercial version of this design is manufactured by Conejo Industries, Inc. and sold by Rovi Products Incorporated of Simi Valley, Calif.
Two-station work mounting fixtures are also known for holding two side-by-side work products. The U.S. Pat. No. 2,625,861, issued on Jan. 20, 1953, to L. Swanson is typical. The downwardly positioned wedge design is also used in many of these fixtures as can be seen in the drawings. Single-station machine tool vises using a wedge design are also known as typified in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,223,879, issued on Sept. 23, 1980 to I. E. Wofe.
It is also known to provide work holding stations for horizontal and vertical machining centers as typified by those sold by Chick Machine Co., Inc. of Butler, Pa. Work holding stations such as this may combine four double vises of the before mentioned types into a single work holding station.
While the before described work vises may have been satisfactory for their intended purpose, they do not provide the ability to tightly clamp and hold a work product that has a large degree of nonparallel sides where the product is clamped. In addition, they do not provide the ability to clamp two work products, side-by-side, both of which have nonparallel clamping surfaces.